


Comfort Food

by evergreenwind



Category: Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist (TV)
Genre: Developing Friendships, Developing Relationship, F/M, Gen, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-06-02
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:14:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24227188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evergreenwind/pseuds/evergreenwind
Summary: It's Zoey's first day back at SPRQ Point and Tobin is concerned.
Relationships: Tobin Batra & Zoey Clarke, Tobin Batra/Zoey Clarke
Comments: 4
Kudos: 25





	Comfort Food

Tobin sat back in his chair as he played with his fidget spinners. He'd been slammed with extra work ever since Max was fired and Zoey had taken some time off. Joan, who helped here and there, had a new set of plates that were full ever since Danny Michael Davis left her in charge. Of course it was nothing he and his boy Leif couldn't handle but still, who liked doing extra work? As he was staring at the screen trying to fix the code he was working on the day before, he heard a familiar voice in the distance.

"Yes, I'm absolutely sure," Zoey said as she walked in with Joan from the elevators. "Thank you for being so understanding, but I think I need to distract my mind a little and jump back into my routine," she said. Joan sighed and shook her head.

"Well let me know if you change your mind. Seriously, Red, when I mean take all the time that you need, I mean it." Joan gave her a reassuring smile and walked to her office.

Zoey turned and walked to her desk. She looked over and saw Tobin staring at her. He showed her a small smile and lifted his hand in the air with a small wave. She gave him an equally small smile back and sat down.

She honestly just wanted to dive right into work and not think about anything else. Just code and that was it. Something she could make sense of. She looked over the progress the team had made with the Chirp while she was gone. As she was signing onto her email, she heard a chair rolling towards her direction and looked up to find Tobin's concerned face.

"Hey Zoey. How're you holding up?" he asked surprisingly in a soft voice.

Zoey sighed and shrugged. "I'm up?" She said it with a smile but even Tobin could tell it was a sad one.

"I didn't want to bother you at the funeral, but I just wanted to say I'm really sorry about your loss. Losing a parent is tough."

Zoey vaguely remembered a remark Tobin had made about how his mother had abandoned him. And while it wasn't quite the same thing, Zoey knew he understood a small part of her pain.

"Thanks, Tobin," she said. "I should probably get back to work, I have a lot of emails to catch up on."

Tobin nodded and rolled back to his desk while saying "let me know if you need anything."

After some time Tobin got up to sneak up to the 6th floor and get his second lunch of the day. He looked over at Zoey's desk and realized she was in the exact same place he had left her. She had been on her computer all day and he hadn't noticed her get up once. He sauntered on over.

"Z-Dawg, did you eat yet?"

"No, I'm not really hungry. Plus I think I figured out one of the issues in the software, I'm just trying to..." she trailed off and began to type. Tobin stood in place and watched her work. 

"I'm gonna go get some more sushi at the seafood bar, you want me to get you anything?" he asked. Zoey shook her head no and continued to stare at her screen. "Alright," he said and knocked on her desk, "you let me know if you do."

She nodded and again started to type, completely engrossed in whatever work she was doing.

As he walked towards the elevator, he saw Simon walking towards what he assumed was Zoey's desk. "Hey man, maybe you can get her to eat something. I haven't seen her take a bite all day," Tobin said shaking his head. Simon looked at Tobin with a confused expression but then nodded when he saw Tobin was gesturing towards Zoey.

As he waited for the elevator, Tobin wondered whether Simon was confused about the nature of his relationship with Zoey. Surely she must have told him that Tobin was a jerk towards her in the office and therefore wouldn't be someone who would be concerned about her.

Tobin also started to wonder why he was he so worried about Zoey. He would even admit that he was pretty rude towards her on occasion, but recently, they had built a small friendship and Zoey really did seem to care when he was having trouble with Leif. Plus she was really supportive when he messed up the calendar on the watch.

After his second lunch, Tobin walked by Simon's office, took a step back and then walked in. "Did she eat?" Simon looked up at him again with a confused expression but then relaxed it when he saw it was Tobin and shook his head. "No she kept saying she wasn't hungry. And she probably doesn't realize that she is. She's just trying to dive into work to forget that loss," he said knowingly. "But, it's good she has friends like you on the floor."

Tobin smiled. "I'd like to think we're friends but I don't know if she'd call it that," with a small laugh.

He went out to the floor and saw that Zoey was scribbling something in her notebook. He then headed over to the cereal bar.

"Cereal bars from the cereal bar," he crooned as he dumped a pile of bars wrapped in foil on Zoey's desk. Startled, Zoey looked up at Tobin who was already walking away. "Don't forget to eat Zo-Zo. Wouldn't want you to pass out while you're doing all that work," he said nonchalantly as he dropped into his chair. He kept his eyes on the computer screen for a few seconds before quickly sneaking a look and seeing Zoey unwrap a Lucky Charms bar and taking a bite. He breathed a sigh of relief and he wasn't sure why.

A slack message popped up onto his screen which snapped him out of his thoughts.

Zoey: Thanks for the comfort food.

He smiled and replied back.

Tobin: Any time.

**Author's Note:**

> You can interpret this as romance or friendship, I love these two either way.


End file.
